MARCH 5, 2004
Posted: March 5, 2004
Vakhtang Komakhidze, Rustavi-2ATTACKEDKomakhidze, a reporter for the well-respected "60 Minutes" investigative
journalism program on independent television station Rustavi-2, was brutally
attacked in the autonomous republic of Ajaria in southern Georgia.

According to Akaki Gogichaishvili, the host of "60 Minutes," Komakhidze
had spent the last two weeks reporting in Ajaria and was working on an exposé
about allegations of corruption by Ajaria's regional leader, Aslan Abashidze,
and his family.

As Komakhidze was driving out of the Ajarian city of Batumi, transit police
stopped him at a check point, said local reports. Several unidentified men
in black uniforms forced Komakhidze out of his car and began to beat him.
The men also took the journalist's video camera, tapes, and various documents.
He was hospitalized in Batumi with serious injuries.

Gogichaishvili and his Rustavi-2 colleagues believe that the men were with
an Ajarian special task unit.

Komakhidze was traveling with a local Batumi newspaper journalist, Mzia
Amaghloberli, who was not harmed. Both she and Komakhidze said the transit
police did nothing to prevent the beating, said the Moscow-based Russian
private television channel, NTV.
APRIL 30, 2004Posted: May 4, 2004

Alexi Tvaradze, Rustavi-2
Eteri Turadze, Batumelebi
Lela Dumbadze, BatumelebiNatia Zoidze, Inter PressATTACKEDAccording to Tvaradze, a cameraman with the independent television station
Rustavi-2, several police officers beat him with clubs and confiscated a
tape containing his footage of an opposition demonstration in the city of
Batumi, in the autonomous republic of Ajaria in southern Georgia. One of
the officers tried to take his camera, "but I didnít let him," Tvaradze
told CPJ. Tvaradze was not seriously injured during the incident and is
back on the job.

Ajarian police also beat Turadze and Dumbadze, editor and reporter, respectively,
with the Ajarian weekly Batumelebi; and Zoidze, a special correspondent
with the news agency Inter Press, according to Internews, an international
nongovernmental media organization. CPJ could not confirm the extent of
these journalistsí injuries.

Local Georgian media reported that several hundred demonstrators participated
in the rally in downtown Batumi, which was organized by the opposition movement
Our Ajaria. The participants demanded the release of political prisoners
held in Ajarian prisons on the orders of Ajariaís regional leader, Aslan
Abashidze.

In early March, Ajarian special forces attacked Vakhstang Komakhidze, a
reporter with Rustavi-2ís investigative news program "60 Minutes," at a
checkpoint on his way out of Batumi after he had reported for two weeks
on allegations of corruption by Abashidze and his family.